Through the technology embedded in almost every major tech platform and every web-enabled device, algorithms and the artificial intelligence that underlies them make a staggering number of everyday decisions for us, from what products we buy, to where we decide to eat, to how we consume our news, to whom we date, and how we find a job. We’ve even delegated life-and-death decisions to algorithms–decisions once made by doctors, pilots, and judges. In his new book, Kartik Hosanagar surveys the brave new world of algorithmic decision-making and reveals the potentially dangerous biases they can give rise to as they increasingly run our lives. He makes the compelling case that we need to arm ourselves with a better, deeper, more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of algorithmic thinking. And he gives us a route in, pointing out that algorithms often think a lot like their creators–that is, like you and me.
Kartik Hosanagar is the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The co-founder of four different ventures, he was recognized in 2011 by Poets & Quants as one of the “Top 40 Business Professors Under 40.” His writing has appeared in Wired, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review, and his past consulting and executive education clients include Google, American Express, Citigroup and SunTrust Bank. Hosanagar earned his PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.
